Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

People with blindness can read again after retinal implant and special glasses

nbcnews.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

111–117 of 117 posts

Re: People with blindness can read again after retinal implant and special glasses

#111

Post by Forgeties79 »

OJFord wrote: post #107
Forgeties79 wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This isn’t a smartphone it’s someone’s sight dude. Surely the conversation should be slightly different?

Of course sight is more serious than smartphone; my point is that if you rely on a for-profit company, then you should take that consideration (familiar from smartphones) more seriously for your sight. Occurs to me there was actually a Black Mirror episode on basically this in the latest season - not sight exactly, but a neurological implant of some kind. (Jacking subscription fees, removing features, etc., with real…

I’m sorry but “caveat emptor” has its limitations as a legitimate argument in my book.

Re: People with blindness can read again after retinal implant and special glasses

#112

Post by throwway120385 »

jeroenhd wrote: post #68
pxc wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The freedom of users of accessibility software is more important than ever. Blind people in my family rely on proprietary software for dealing with visual impairments. It's painful and offensive how exploitative these tools often are. The thought of installing something by a similar company into one's body is frankly dystopian.

The problem right now is that there's a financial incentive for software to remain proprietary. As a user, you get to pick between "no help" or "proprietary help". I would gladly pay big money for proprietary tools if it means regaining some of my sight until libre options exist. Looking at the rather sorry state of accessibility on libre software, I'll be dead and buried before the first digital eyeball with free so…

In the US you'd have to get any implanted solution past the FDA, which is going to require a decent amount of money and probably a QA engineer and someone responsible for reading the regulatory documents and articulating their requirements for the team and the QA engineer.

Re: People with blindness can read again after retinal implant and special glasses

#113

Post by HugoTea »

yieldcrv wrote: post #69

> had achieved clinically meaningful visual improvements so that means it sucks

They gained the ability to read, which is a big step for quality of life and accessibility. It's not just books, things like reading your own mail, the menu at a restaurant, train departure times etc. all goes a long way to regaining independence

Re: People with blindness can read again after retinal implant and special glasses

#114

Post by atomicnumber3 »

lynx97 wrote: post #25

A bit of a tengent, but... For those worrying about their eyesight when getting older... If you are into FLOSS, one last defense against your eyes failing when you get older is actually to contribute to accessibility before you (hopefully never) end up needing it. Disclaimer: I am blind myself.

What's your #1 pet peeve random sites get wrong w.r.t. accessibility?

Re: People with blindness can read again after retinal implant and special glasses

#115

Post by Tade0 »

squigz wrote: post #58
inglor_cz wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What do you think about the recent "People with blindness" obsession, as evidenced in the title? I am not blind nor deaf etc., but I am frankly fed up with it. In my case, should I call myself "a person with programming, Czechness and fortysomething years"? Nope, I am a middle-aged Czech programmer. Yes, that does not reflect my entire personality and humanity. So what. Better than this sort of language abuse.

> What do you think about the recent "People with blindness" obsession, as evidenced in the title? Is there really an "obsession"? Also, while I don't deny there's some discussion here, I think you really have to squint to read the title in such a way. In any case, I ... really don't care. As another commenter says, there are other, bigger, more important hills to die on than getting worked up about people trying to…

> Is there really an "obsession"?

There's somewhat of a debate about it throughout the European eastern block. Policing language is somewhat of a touchy topic around here.

Personally I much more often stop saying certain things than start using some expressions - they typically age badly.

Re: People with blindness can read again after retinal implant and special glasses

#116

Post by pk-protect-ai »

terminalshort wrote: post #34
pk-protect-ai wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Glass protects from UV bellow 350nm, which leaves 350nm-400nm band open. So additional coating is required. I might be wrong but such factors as glass thickness and the radiation intensity should be also accounted for. Every physical object is mostly an empty space ...

Visual range goes to 380. I'm skeptical that light at 350 is really doing much damage to my eyes.

It actually does not not matter what you see. You can't see UV, and it harms your eyes. What you need is a protection from UV band, and that is exactly what your eye can't see.

Re: People with blindness can read again after retinal implant and special glasses

#117

Post by worldsayshi »

noir_lord wrote: post #70
worldsayshi wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a citizen of a country with free healthcare, Sweden, I wonder how we deal with these issues. We dont exactly have a stellar record when it comes to software procurement in the health sector.

Neither do we in the UK. The most expensive IT failure in our governments history was healthcare related. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NHS_Connecting_for_Health

That sounds eerily familiar to what happened in Sweden.
Post reply on HN